For Eric Ghiaciuc the decision to join the Kansas City Chiefs came down to two factors: the opportunity to play and the opportunity to win games.

The unrestricted free agent center from Cincinnati does not have a guarantee of either as he goes through the Chiefs off-season program. Right now he’s working with the No. 2 offense, playing behind last year’s start center Rudy Niswanger.

And the Chiefs are coming off a 2-14 season, and have experienced just a half dozen victories in the last 24 months. Changes have been made, but the expectation of a major turnaround in the victory total is something carried by only the most hopeful.

Count this Michigan native among those that see light at the end of the tunnel. Ghiaciuc knows the facts and stats, but for him they translate not to negativity, but to a positive outlook at the opportunity before him with the 2009 Chiefs.

“Maybe it’s just me being stubborn, but I think there’s a great opportunity here with this team right now,” Ghiaciuc said after going through an OTA session on Thursday at the Truman Sports Complex.

“I look at the situation I’m in as the opportunity to be part of something special. I’m very excited to be here. They asked me to come here, they asked me to work hard and that I can do.”

But come on, this team won two games last year. What kind of optimism does that generate?

“Doesn’t matter,” Ghiaciuc said. “It has zero effect on what happens this year. Every time you step on the field, there’s an opportunity to win games. I don’t care if you are the defending Super Bowl champs or you are like Detroit last year (0-16), the opportunity is there to win.

“All we can do is seize that opportunity and do the work that will allow us to be in position to do that.

“To me it’s all positive. There are two reasons the guys in the locker room play this game. There’s the opportunity to play and the opportunity to win. Those are here. ”

But how can a 2-14 team turn it around that quickly? He doesn’t remember what movie the scene is from, but Ghiaciuc had a ready answer.

“One of the characters in this movie asks another ‘Have you ever seen a million dollars?’” Ghiaciuc said. “The guy says no and the other guy says ‘Just because you haven’t seen a million dollars doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.’

“You can apply that to football. Just because we haven’t won in the past, doesn’t mean we aren’t going to win this year.

”Some people might call it blind faith, but I don’t care. Whatever you want to call it, trust, faith, when those people that have it, you don’t have to explain anything. For those people that don’t have it, they are going to question things.

“I have it.”

Ghiaciuc comes to the Chiefs after four seasons with Cincinnati, where he started all 16 games at center last year for the Bengals, the same job that Niswanger held down for the Chiefs. He signed knowing that he would begin the process as the No. 2 center.

“I came here to raise the level of competition,” Ghiaciuc said. “I just want to improve. Where it goes from there, I don’t know. I just came here to compete.”

Eric Ghiaciuc will compete in 2009, and he thinks he’ll be part of a winning team.

“Optimism is the fuel for life,” he said.

Sounds like one of those motivational posters they sell in the mall.

“You know I used to look at those things and groan,” Ghiaciuc said. “Now, I’m like why fight it, go with it. I believe it.

“There’s more opportunity here than some people think, or realize.”